Defamation

Nat Hentoff this day reminds us, should we need reminding, that freedom of conscience is always under some attack. In this case it is the United Nations that has urged its member states to make it a crime to “defame” any religion. From Mr. Hentoff’s op-ed:

In an 83 to 53 vote, with 42 abstentions, the U.N. General Assembly urged nations to provide “adequate protections” in their laws or constitutions against “acts of hatred, discrimination, intimidation and coercion resulting from defamation of religions and incitement to religious hatred in general.”

Only Islam and Muslims are specifically named in this resolution against religious defamation, sponsored by Uganda on behalf of the 57-member Organization of the Islamic Conference

Only Islam and Muslims. What a coincidence. And which major religion is it, exactly, that today engages in “acts of hatred discrimination,” etc against other faiths? Oh, right, it’s those pesky Baha’i in Iran.

What an absolute crock of feces is the United Nations, to indulge in such fecklessness. A cowardly move by the UN in the face of the “religion of peace” that might more accurately be labeled the “religion of body pieces.”

Here in the West, Baptists know, from our painful history, what it means to be “defamed.” As in Christians generally not allowed to practice our religion; as in being killed, yet to this very day, in lands that do not have freedom of conscience. Interestingly enough, many of those lands in which it is forbidden and dangerous to be a professing Christian are Muslim lands. Some of which make it a crime to not be a Muslim.

There will come a reckoning at the end, brothers and sisters. It will not come in our time, but in God’s. And it will be a terrible thing to witness, as those who persecuted the truth are fed to the flames of eternal damnation. What to do in the here and now?

Simple: defend freedom of conscience. Stand tall for Christ; be not ashamed to be called Christian. And let no one dictate to you your opinion of that which you know to be blasphemous and wrong.

Pray for our enemies? Yes, pray that will see the light and embrace Jesus Christ as Lord. Pray that they change their jihadist ways and simply adapt a “live and let live” philosophy. But loving our Muslim neighbors does not mean we don’t speak the truth. That’s not love — it’s cowardice.